It genuinely drives me up the wall that people will try to say why self dx is bad and caveats on why people aren't allowed to self diagnose and yadda yadda.
And all I have to say to that is, you don't know what it's like.
If you haven't experienced the amount of ableism one can have by not being diagnosed, and people just forcibly give you so much imposter syndrome to last a life time, then you don't know what it's like.
And yes, most disabled people I've met, whether professionally diagnosed or not, know what it's like. Because people don't punish you just because you aren't diagnosed, they punish your disabled traits and make you feel like shit, like you aren't good enough. Anyone with "disabled traits" can experience this.
I don't know why people have privileged and ignorant takes like this then. I can understand people being bitter, but not people gatekeeping just because they had the privilege of being diagnosed. Like it's an "I'm better than you, I deserve more because I went through this legitimately." They don't understand that everyone with any disabled traits gets treated like this.
I'll tell you a story of mine, in middle school, I had a hyperfixation about something, something cute, something simple. And I still have that hyperfixation to this day. But I wasn't diagnosed with ADHD in middle school, I was basically left to fend for myself on this factor, people tried helping me, they just didn't know what the issue was. So anyway, I was horrendously harassed and bullied for my hyperfixation, all my harassers said they would "kill" and "eat" it, they would harm my thing if they had the chance. It was ingrained in my mind that they would hurt it. It makes me nauseous thinking about it. I have a trigger now, because of it. Almost all my memories of middle school are gone because of the harassment. Just because I had a silly, cute hyperfixation/obsession. Just because I had this "disabled trait", even disabled people bullied me. One of my harassers had autism, another had ADHD. I was an easy target.
I don't proudly wear my scars on display, I'm not disabled for internet clout, I'm just a human being, who deserves respect, just like any other human being.
So, you don't get to tell me that undiagnosed people don't struggle, we have, we do. I've been diagnosed officially now, but no one has to justify or explain it to you. You are not entitled to disabled people's life stories and struggles, whether or not they're diagnosed.
So, don't pull your "I'm officially diagnosed" card at undiagnosed people, don't gatekeep or dictate them, don't be shitty people to them. I don't fucking care if you don't think they're valid. They will always be fucking valid to me.
All disabled people deserve respect, especially the ones who don't have the same privileges to get diagnosed.